The Department of Defense has awarded funding grants to five small businesses, enabling them to advance new warfighting technologies into the production stage.
The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering awards are part of the Accelerate the Procurement and Fielding of Innovative Technologies pilot program, which seeks to accelerate the development of defense capabilities that the military requires to combat existing and emerging threats, the Department of Defense said Wednesday.
Advancing Warfighting Innovations
According to Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu, a Wash100 Award winner, APFIT’s support will give the selected companies “an opportunity to push their innovations over the finish line.”
“We look forward to supporting additional projects important to warfighters as more funding is appropriated,” she noted.
The chosen projects for fiscal year 2025 include Advanced Tactical Flotation Systems for the U.S. Special Operations Command; Counter Unmanned Aerial System Fused Air Picture for the U.S. Air Force; Coral Drift for the U.S. Army; Small Unmanned Aircraft Defense for the USAF; and Software-Defined Tactical Optical Modem for Performance and Ruggedization for the U.S. Marine Corps. The APFIT pilot will allocate at least $10 million for each of the selected projects.
Bridging the ‘Valley of Death’
Launched in 2022, APFIT primarily works with small businesses to bridge the gap between tech development and production. The program intends to boost production quantities by supporting assembly line maturation and increasing existing program procurement funding.
